Does the human homolog of IT guide search based on global attributes?
The simplest possible interpretation of the neuronal-behavioral correlation is (a) that humans posses an area homologous to IT, (b) that neurons in this area represent global image structure in a code equivalent to the code in IT, and (c) that humans base global search on activity in this area. These points seem plausible but each must be qualified. (a) The human lateral occipital and fusiform regions are generally regarded as homologous to macaque IT on the grounds of their location and object-selective BOLD responses (Grill-Spector et al., 2001; Tootell et al., 2003; Orban et al., 2004; Pinsk et al., 2009) but no homology is certain. (b) The idea that representations in lateral occipital and fusiform cortex are similar to those in IT remains to be established. One approach to characterize the object representation in humans is to assess the similarity in the BOLD activation patterns elicited by individual objects (Edelman et al., 1998; Williams et al., 2007; Hausfhofer et al., 2008).
